Milton woman finds a happy ending in competitive storytelling

Wednesday

At 52, she stood in front of a storytelling audience for the first time and told a tale about an embarrassing teenage moment when her mother greeted her first high school date dressed as a clown.

“I told my friend I was never going to get up there and she said ‘Why not?',” said Baker, who had gone to the event at the Common Market in Quincy to listen, not perform. “And then I thought, ‘Why not?’ The (slam) theme was parenting and I have a pretty colorful family. After 50, I felt like I wanted to say ‘Why not?’ more often.”

She never expected what happened next. After others told their five-minute story, the judges declared her the winner. In the two years since that April night, Baker, nearly 54, has won six slams, and now is one of 10 finalists in the Big Mouth Off this Thursday at Somerville Theatre. Last year, she appeared on the WGBH television program Stories from the Stage.

“Winning is fun, but telling the story is even more fun,” said Baker who lives in Milton with her two teenagers. “Just standing up and telling a story is such a rush. There’s nervousness and fear, but the minute I start, something washes over me and I feel awesome when I sit down.”

At the Big Mouth Off, Baker will tell the story that won her first place in a slam and then a semi-final in Cambridge. Responding to the prompt “party foul,” she will share a terrifying and funny story in vivid, cringing detail about a night of poor judgment and risky behavior at age 18, shortly after she moved out of mother’s house and took a low-wage retail job. High on acid, alcohol and pot, she blacked out at a Halloween party, where in her moments of lucidity she believed her sad clown make-up was melting into her skin and causing permanent sadness, which she tried to remove by scratching her face with a dirty nail file and causing red streaks of clotted blood. Like many good tales, it goes from bad to worse, before ending with hard-won knowledge or accomplishment.

Hearing her stories, audience members frequently come up to her afterwards to tell her about their experiences with substance abuse, embarrassing parents, failed romances, mothering challenges and other topics.

“People have told me about when they did drugs and acted in ways they regret,” she said. “I like making myself vulnerable in that way because I feel like I connect to people.”

After the Halloween fiasco, Baker went to rehab in New Hampshire and has been sober and drug-free since. She has faced other challenges, since her diagnoses of ulcerative colitis 20 years ago and multiple sclerosis 11 years ago.

“Some people would say I’ve had a difficult life, but I don’t think so,” she said. “I did grow up in a dysfunctional family where my father was an alcoholic and we moved every year or so. And I’ve had to deal with major health issues, but my coping mechanism is I have to find humor in things. And if I have a bad experience, I think maybe this will make a good story someday.”

Every month, Baker goes to one or more slams in the Boston area run by MassMouth, Shore Shore Story Slam or The Moth. The Big Mouth Off, organized by Massmouth, is the championship contest for winners in its monthly story slams, held from October to March at Club Passim in Cambridge and Trident Booksellers & Café in Boston.

At these events, including one last Friday in Hanover, she has told stories about a romance that falls apart over parenting styles, a cat she thought was male but had kittens, her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and her defiant protection of her daughter. Winning a spot at a Grand Slam at Cutler Majestic Theater in Boston on the theme “fired up,” she told a story about how she refused to comply with the doctor who told her she had to leave the room while he set her daughter’s wrist and insultingly referred to her as "one of his mommies."

“When I was growing up my parents didn’t react to my injuries with much emotion,” she said. “As a mom, I tried to channel TV moms who were compassionate. So I went all Claire Huxtable on him and he allowed me to stay.”

For most of her career, Baker first was a marketer for children’s programs at WGBH and then a content marketer at various tech companies. Concerned that stress was aggravating her health conditions, she left the tech field several years ago to became a barista at a Milton coffee house and a dog walker.

On any given day, she practices in front of the super-size mirror in her living room for an upcoming slam.

“Usually, the first time I tell a story it’s way too long and I have to start cutting,” she said. “Then, I record it so I can listen to myself, which is sometimes painful, and practice some more. I don’t memorize, so every time I tell it, it’s different.

Reach Jody Feinberg at jfeinberg@ledger.com. Follow her on Twitter@JodyF_Ledger.

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